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The European Parliament adopted by 279 votes to 105
with 204 abstentions a resolution on women domestic workers and
carers in the EU.

Members recalled that the
domestic work sector employed over 52 million people around
the world in 2010, according to ILO figures, and a further 7.4
million domestic workers under the age of 15, accounting for
between 5% and 9% of all employment in industrialised countries.
According to the International Labour Organisation (ILO), the
majority of workers employed in this sector are women, accounting
for 83% of the global domestic workforce in 2010 and translating
into 2.5 million in the EU, 88% of them being
women.

Common recognition of the profession: Parliament believed that there is a need for a
common EU recognition of the profession and the value of domestic
work and care as real work. It therefore called on the EU and the
Member States to lay down common rules on domestic
work and care.

The Commission should come forward with a
set of policy instruments, on domestic work and care,
establishing quality guidelines for both
sectors. Such initiatives should focus on the following
aspects:

the introduction of a general framework for
the professionalisation of domestic work and care, leading to
the recognition and standardisation of the relevant professions and
skills and career building, including rights accumulated in
accordance with the Member States specificities;

urgently proposing a Carers Leave Directive and a framework
for recognition of the status of non-professional carers, which
offers them remuneration and minimum standards of social
protection, and support in terms of training and specific actions
to help them improve their living and working
conditions.

The Commission was asked to encourage Member States to
establish systems for professionalisation, training, continuous
skills development and recognition of women domestic and care
workers qualifications, including literacy. For their
part, Member States should:

take decisive action in the sectors of domestic work
and care by recognising this work as an occupation in its own right
and by ensuring that domestic workers and carers have genuine
workers rights and social protection through labour
legislation or collective agreements;

ensure an appropriate level of health and safety at
work, for example maternity protection, and take action to
prevent work-related accidents;

include domestic workers and carers in all
national labour, healthcare, social care, insurance and
anti-discrimination laws, recognising their contribution to the
economy and society. To this end, the Commission should consider
revising any EU directives which exclude these workers from rights
that other categories of workers enjoy.

Combating undeclared work: Parliament considered it essential to combat
precarious and undeclared work, given that this phenomenon severely
affects domestic workers, including particularly migrant women
workers, thus worsening their already vulnerable position.
Practices such as child labour should be eradicated and the
perpetrators prosecuted.

Members lent their support to the efforts made by the
European
Platform against Undeclared Work and called on the Member
States to invest in more ways of preventing,
detecting and combating the considerable amount of undeclared
employment in the domestic work and care sector, especially with
regard to cases of labour abuse and services involving companies
using bogus self-employment.

As regards legal migration, Members
stressed the need for the Member States to establish bilateral
agreements with those states that statistics show to be the sending
countries of domestic workers and carers, in order to regularise
the sending and receiving flow.

Human trafficking: the
Commission and Member States should promote the investigation
of cases of trafficking for human exploitation, and more
specifically for domestic work, to improve the mechanism of
identification and protection of these victims and to
involve NGOs, trade unions, public authorities and all citizens in
the process. The instruments and mechanisms established to address
trafficking, such as referral mechanisms or temporary residence
permits, should be expanded.

Protection of domestic workers: Parliament called on Member States to establish
accessible complaint mechanisms and measures for labour inspection,
enforcement and penalties with due regard for the special
characteristics of domestic work, in accordance with national laws
and regulations. It demanded resolute action to be taken against
undertakings in any sector whose business model relies on
exploiting illegal workers.

Member States were asked to:

to make the necessary efforts to step up
inspections, and to find innovative inspection methods which
respect privacy;

organise campaigns among the general public
bodies to improve visibility and enhance understanding of
the benefits of regularised domestic work and care;

launch campaigns to raise awareness of the
rights and duties of domestic and care workers and
employers and the risks and impact of exploitation in the domestic
work sector;

put in place, in collaboration with social partners,
information channels on the rights of domestic workers and
carers (helplines and websites providing
assistance);

consider incentives for employers to encourage the use
of declared domestic workers and carers.

Lastly, Parliament called for good representation
of social partners at European and at national levels, and in
particular trade unions, to intensify sectorial collective
bargaining in line with national practices in order to effectively
advance and enforce decent working conditions in these
sectors.